Cartoon firms get animated after scooping awards

The dream sequence currently being enjoyed by Irish animation looks set to continue after two Dublin cartoon companies brought home gongs from the Children’s Bafta awards in London.

The best animation award went to The Amazing World of Gumball, which is aired on the Cartoon Network and co-produced in Dublin by Boulder Media. Boulder Media and its partners also won best script for the same series.

And it was up against the likes of the popular series, The Gruffalo’s Child.

The company’s other show, 9th Grade Ninja, recently began screening on the Disney Channel.

Meanwhile, Jam Media scooped the children’s drama Bafta for Roy, the series produced for CBBC, at the ceremony in London on Sunday.

The show began as a short film chronicling the comic life of a ordinary Crumlin family whose son was born with a badly-drawn, cartoon body.

It was picked up by CBBC as a fly-on-the-wall documentary looking at the life of the same cartoon character.

Chief executive of Jam Media, John Rice, said after successive nominations his company was delighted take a prize at last.

“This is the third time we have been nominated so we are obviously thrilled that we have won a Bafta.

“The competition was stiff and this award, coming just after the re-commission of a double series of Roy by CBBC, proves that the series and the character of Roy really seems to resonate with viewers in the UK, Ireland and beyond,” he said.

Earlier this year, the company won the Cartoon Forum Producer of the Year Award.